All Rules & Proposals articles – Page 59
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Blog
Risk Retention Rule Finalized for Asset-Backed Securities
Bank regulators, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Housing Finance Agency, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have jointly issued a final rule that imposes credit risk retention requirements on sponsors of asset-backed securities. The rule requires sponsors to hold at least 5 percent of the ...
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FDIC Refreshes Guidance on High-Risk Customers
Gun merchants, strippers, and payday lenders rejoice! The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has signaled an end to its effort to restrict industries deemed as “high risk” from banking access. The FDIC tells banks to take a risk-based approach in assessing individual “customers, rather than declining to provide banking services to ...
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EU Cracking Down on Abuse of Parent-Subsidiary Rules
Image: The European Union has amended its parent-subsidiary directive to prevent national tax authorities from granting benefits to a corporation if its tax arrangement is determined to be not reflective of the company’s economic reality. Initially intended to prevent parent corporations from being taxed twice on profits made by subsidiaries ...
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Article
OECD Updates Views on Governance
The OECD has received an earful about proposed revisions to its principles of corporate governance, guidelines it encourages countries to adopt much the way they already follow its principles for anti-corruption. Some say the revisions dwell too much on company-level reforms, and not enough at the country-level to allow flexible ...
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SEC Speaks on Graphics, Multimedia in Filings
The SEC is offering guidance on how companies can use charts, graphics, and even multimedia files in corporate filings to tell your story in fewer words. All well and good, says a new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation from the Division of Corporation Finance. It warns, however, that required information must ...
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Survey: Financial Institutions Stymied by Conduct Risk
Financial institutions may talk a lot about “conduct risk,” but few actually approach it with a clear definition and focus. Eighty-one percent of respondents in a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters Accelus say they do not have a working definition of what conduct risk is. A big reason: regulators leave ...
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Article
FTC, FDA Take Closer Look at Disclosures
The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on companies with questionable advertising disclosures. The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, may allow shorter lists of side effects in drug and medical device ads, even as it prepares tougher standards for how these companies use online advertising and social media. The focus ...
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Treasury Issues Amendments to Cuba Sanctions
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Commerce today published amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to implement policy changes announced by the President last month. The newly revised regulations, in part, allow a number of activities related to telecommunications, financial services, ...
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SEC Adopts Swaps Rules; Piwowar Slams CCO Changes
The SEC has adopted new rules that will require security-based swap data repositories to register with the Commission and adhere to new recordkeeping and data transparency requirements. Commissioner Michael Piwowar was a dissenting vote over what he says were last-minute changes intended to crack down on individuals who lie to ...
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Republicans Move on Volcker Rule, XBRL
The new Republican majority in Congress launched its first strike against the Dodd-Frank Act last Wednesday, passing a bill that offers banks a semi-reprieve from the Volcker Rule and exempts small companies from filing financial statements tagged in XBRL. The legislation now moves to a Senate vote and is likely ...
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EU Bankers Bristle Against ‘Unjustified’ Proposed Structural Changes
Image: Jan. 14—Bankers in the European Union have received support for their continued opposition to the European Commission’s bid to mandate structural changes to the bloc’s biggest banks. The proposal would force some of the biggest banks to stop proprietary trading or split off certain trading activities from deposit-taking activities. ...
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EU Insurance Sector Ramping Up to Meet New Regime
Image: Jan. 14—Insurers are finally preparing to meet solvency requirements passed nearly six years ago. Member states have until the end of March to transpose the Solvency II Directive into national law, with insurers starting to seek approval in April for their models used to calculate capital requirements. A recent ...
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MetLife Makes a Federal Case of its SIFI Designation
MetLife has filed a lawsuit to undo its designation as a non-bank systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Although CEO Steven Kandarian said the company had hoped to avoid litigation, it marks the first time a too-big-to-fail designation has been challenged before a federal judge.
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SEC Announces 2015 Examination Priorities
The SEC has released its examination priorities for 2015. The list includes cyber-security controls and assessing anti-money laundering efforts, with a focus on firms that have not filed suspicious activity reports or have incomplete or late filings. SEC staff will also examine proxy advisory service firms, assessing how they make ...
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White House Unveils New Data Security Efforts
On Monday, President Barack Obama proposed several new initiatives intended to enhance data security and combat identity theft. Among the proposals is legislation requiring companies to notify customers within 30 days when their personal information has been exposed, criminalizing the overseas trade in identities, and preventing certain uses of student ...
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Podcast: Casinos Double Down on Anti-Money Laundering Compliance
Casinos have traditionally had a less-than-stellar track record when it comes to their anti-money laundering efforts. But now, amid increased scrutiny on AML compliance by regulators, the American Gaming Association has released its first-ever AML best practices guidebook. In our latest podcast, we talk to Fred Curry, a principal in ...
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CFTC Outlines Expectations for New Annual Reports from CCOs
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently shed more light on the new annual reports that compliance officers at swaps dealers must now provide. The CFTC guidance outlines expectations for assessing a firm’s written policies and procedures, including the code of ethics and conflict-of-interest policies. Shortcomings must be explained in detail, ...
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FTC Chair Warns of Internet of Things Data Privacy Concerns
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Edith Ramirez took to the floor of the International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas last week to offer companies a warning about the “Internet of Things” and broadband-connected cars, wearable tech, and home appliances. Connected devices pose significant privacy and security implications, she said, urging ...
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OSHA Begins New Reporting Requirements
A reminder from the Department of Labor: As of New Year’s Day, employers have new reporting requirements when a workplace injury occurs. A rule adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires businesses to report work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related hospitalizations and amputations within 24 hours.
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U.K. First in EU to Implement Tougher Transparency Rules for Extractives
Image: Jan. 8—The new year brought tougher transparency rules for listed European Union firms in the extractives and logging sectors, as the United Kingdom became the first to implement a new transparency directive ahead of the July deadline. Now oil, gas, and mining firms are required to prepare annually a ...